''Leucopogon collinus'', commonly known as fringed beard-heath, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender, erect or spreading shrub with narrowly lance-shaped leaves, and white, tube-shaped, bearded flowers.

Description

''Leucopogon collinus'' is a slender, erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to , its branchlets with minute, bristly hairs. Its leaves are

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

, narrowly lance-shaped to oblong, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are crowded on the ends of branches or in upper leaf axils forming spikes long with egg-shaped

bracteoles In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

long. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are egg-shaped, long, the petals white and joined at the base to form a tube long, the lobes long and densely bearded on the inside. Flowering occurs from July to October and is followed by an elliptic

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

about long.

Taxonomy and naming

Fringed beard-heath was first formally described in 1810 by

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

, who gave it the name ''Styphelia collina'' in his ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

''. In the same year, Robert Brown changed the name to ''Leucopogon collinus'' in his ''

Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'' (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land) is a flora of Australia written by botanist Robert Brown and published in 1810. Often referred to as ''Prodromus Flora Novae ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''collinus'') means "living on hills".

Distribution and habitat

''Leucopogon collinus'' grows in woodland and coastal heath and is found south from Eden in New South Wales, in coastal areas east of

Orbost Orbost is a historic early settlers town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, Victoria, east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the surf and fishing seaside t ...

and other scattered locations further westwards in inland Victoria, and is common and widespread in Tasmania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17241273 collinus Ericales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière